Toys simulating real life situations relating to vehicles have always been popular with children. Thus, there are toy or play garages, airports, bus stations, etc., which simulate various feature of real life relating to each situation. Such play apparatus provides varying degrees of realism; with the greater the realism, the greater the play value. A car wash is a real life situation that a child would usually have had some exposure to, however, there is a natural reluctance by parents (and thus toy manufacturers) to provide toys which utilize water (aside from bathtub or beach type toys) because of the risks of the child getting the water on the floor, the furniture, etc. Further, such play apparatus often is automatically or semi-automatically controlled and/or powered, so that the child user is an observer with minimum involvement in the operation of the device. He or she simply starts the apparatus in operation, and watches it go through its cycle.